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27

Jan

Windows 10 Preview - January Build Now Available

Microsoft has just released the latest preview build for Windows 10 which is known as the January Build or Technical Preview 2. This release contains build version 9926. The latest build comes with Cortana and XBOX features which were demonstrated a few days ago at the public event held by Microsoft.

In order to obtain this build, you need to either be a Windows Insider (join for free https://insider.windows.com) or it’s possible to download from your MSDN Subscription.

Download Windows 10 Preview using Windows Insider Program

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

The following downloads are available for me within my MSDN Subscription:

The official announcement from Microsoft can be found here – http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/23/january-build-now-available-to-the-windows-insider-program/

Please note that there is already a list of identified known issues within the Windows 10 Technical preview. These are as follows:

After installing this build, you may see a boot selection menu each time you reboot your PC. This is because a bug where a second boot option is persisted to uninstall the Windows 10 Technical Preview and roll back to the previous OS installed. When you get to this screen, if you do nothing it will automatically boot to the Windows 10 Technical Preview within 30 seconds by default or you can choose it on your own. Don’t worry, this behavior is only temporary.

Xbox Live enabled games that require sign-in will not launch correctly. If you see the below dialog box the game requires Xbox Live sign-in. A fix for this will be distributed via WU shortly after the release of Build 9926.

Battery icon shows on lock screen of PCs without batteries.

Tiles on the Start menu show truncated app names (such as the Windows Feedback app).

Remote Desktop has some painting issues that result in tiled pixelation.

In Cortana, reminders can’t be edited and more complex reminders might not get created. The first reminder you create in Cortana in this build might not pop up, but subsequent ones will. Completed reminders also don’t move to the History page in Cortana’s Notebook.

The Music app will disappear if minimized within 16 seconds of launch. Just leave it in the foreground for 20 seconds or so and it should work just fine.

Occasionally, the Start Menu is improperly registered and will fail to launch

There’s also an update released to fix some of the issues in the current preview build. Once installation completes, make sure that you go ahead and do a windows update scan to obtain latest hotfixes. Following issues were fixed by Microsoft by releasing an update.

Reliability improvements to prevent some system crashes in explorer.exe

Fixes an issue that could cause a deleted app to be unintentionally re-installed

Increased power efficiency to extend battery life

Reliability improvements for virtual machine live migrations

Performance improvements for Internet Explorer

Fixes an issue that could cause pending Windows Updates to be incorrectly reported in the update history

Fixes an issue that could cause the Start Menu to be improperly registered and fail to launch

Fixes an issue that could cause random pixelation on the screen when using Remote Desktop Client

Once my download finishes, I will post back with more details and my experience on Windows 10 Preview.